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Terry Pluto is an award-winning sports journalist, but FALSE START, his latest effort, isn't really a sports book. It's a book about the business of professional sports, in this case the business of running the National Football League franchise known as the Cleveland Browns. Perhaps you've heard of them.
The Cleveland Browns had a long and glorious history of Rust Belt football, including the 1964 national championship and fairly regular playoff appearances. Win or lose, the fans loved 'em, week after week filling the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium to its 80,000-seat capacity even on the nastiest of North Coast winter days. Then one day, at the end of the 1994 season, the entire team was hijacked to Baltimore, transformed into the Ravens, and a lifetime of Cleveland football came to an abrupt end. What happened after that -- the big buck deals and unquestionably questionable business decisions that led to the reappearance and subsequent failure of a bunch of guys dressed like the Browns -- fills the pages of FALSE START.
Pluto asserts that the new Browns never had a chance, doomed from the start by greed on the part of the NFL and dysfunctional management on the part of the team's new owners. Coming out on the short end of the deal, naturally, are the fans. Pluto brackets each of the chapters in this short but satisfying read with brief testimonials from Browns fans whose devotion to the team was in many cases passed down from one generation to the next. Many of these testimonials reveal a sense of family tradition and an appreciation of the Browns as a conduit to memories of Sunday afternoons that brought families together. These brief anecdotes put a sharp point indeed on Pluto's observations concerning the mismanagement of the team and the NFL's utter disregard for the fans, who represent little more to the league than a vast collection of eyeballs with credit cards, to be delivered to advertisers.
Pluto makes his case with wit, energy, and a deep appreciation for what it means to be a sports fan in general and a Browns fan in particular. FALSE START makes solid contact, but in a tone that is all about tough love. "The fans still care," Pluto observes, "but the team needs to shape up."
While FALSE START is unlikely to appeal to readers with little or no interest in sports, it nevertheless offers a fascinating and disturbing look at a train wreck of a team and the loyal but increasingly impatient and disappointed fans who long to see something of the past in the future.
--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart
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